Rick Santorum, adopting the "slow and steady" label for himself that many candidates are using this cycle, says he's starting to pull at the threads of Michele Bachmann's campaign in Iowa:

Santorum said his camp has even been in talks with “key people” in Bachmann’s camp. These people are not paid staff, but Iowa activists that “are in conversations with us and see things not going well for her,” he explained.

“There’s no question that doubts have been raised about Michele [Bachmann] and her electability, and certainly we clearly benefit from that,” Santorum said. “We are picking up people, not just [Tim] Pawlenty people in Iowa, but also folks who had supported Bachmann and we know that folks, even some of her key people are coming to talk to us, let’s put it that way.”

Santorum says his approach to the Hawkeye state is “slow and steady,” and he’s intent on surprising the country — as Mike Huckabee did in 2008 — and winning the Iowa caucuses. He says the narrative of a two-man race, which Santorum sees as “the media shoving down their [voters'] throat[s]” is now out the window with Herman Cain’s win in Florida adding the GOP electorate has problems with Romney’s “lack of consistent conservatism.”

Bachmann does have a real base of support in Iowa, something Rick Perry is just starting to build, and something that will be hard for rivals to pull at. But Santorum appeals to the same swath of voters, and he has kept himself going on a shoestring campaign and his message.